Gordon Watson, 85, remembers penguins living on the rocky breakwater at the end of the old St Kilda pier since he was a teenager. “I learned to sail with the St Kilda yacht club and I remember being with a group of three of us lads sailing around in a dingy going, ‘Oh look, there’s a penguin.’”
Then, in the early 2000s, Watson and his late wife became volunteer guides with Earthcare St Kilda, helping to care for the little penguin colony and manage the public as visitor numbers increased. While “the majority of people were great” there were some “nasty moments” with some members of the public, Watson says.
“Once the word got out and hotels started sending people here instead of going all the way to [see another little penguin colony at] Phillip Island, it just got too popular,” Watson said.
“People would come down from the bars after sunset. The last public headcount I did on the breakwater just before Covid, we had over 3,000 people on that breakwater – you couldn’t move. It really needed to be managed properly.”
After a five-year hiatus, free guided tours to the little penguin colony at the end of the new St Kilda pier finally re-reopened this week. The penguins spend their days swimming and foraging for food in the waters of Port Phillip Bay, then return to shore at dusk to nest. Phillip Island Nature Parks and Earthcare St Kilda take groups twice daily (at sunset and after dark) along a new, purpose-built 150m viewing platform.
Strolling along the elevated wooden walkway at the end of the new $53m pier at dusk, the first notable change is that the resident penguins are now viewed from the purpose-built platform offering seating and closeup views of the colony’s rocky home, rather than allowing the public to trample through it.
Little penguins or Eudyptula minor, meaning “good little diver”, are only about 30cm tall and weigh between 1 and 1.2kg. Visitors can expect an intimate view of the creatures waddling among the rocks and in their nests, often lined with saltbush. On approach, expect to be greeted by a chirp or bray, not unlike a magpie warble.
The little penguins began establishing the colony in St Kilda after 1956, when the breakwater was built for the Melbourne Olympic Games yacht races. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that the penguins were officially acknowledged as having made themselves a permanent home, which offered an alternative to the long journey to Phillip Island. When the population was first officially counted in 1986, there were just 57 penguins. That number has now grown to more than 1,400.
Flossy Sperring, a volunteer penguin guide since 2014, says the conditions the penguins face have changed considerably over the past decade. “When I first started volunteering here it was all about people sharing their love for the penguins, and a little bit of stopping people using selfie sticks and flashes, but mostly just folks sharing stories,” she says.
“Then the crowds got bigger and bigger and it became chaotic and very stressful trying to protect the penguins with the small resources we had. Covid hit and I have to say it was a welcome relief for the penguins – they needed a break.”
Sperring says the colony is thriving now. “Being an urban colony they are exposed to all manner of threats – climate change, light pollution, fishing, plastic pollution – but they are incredibly resilient and are coping amazingly well.”
Sperring says a major focus for Earthcare St Kilda was keeping visitors at a distance from the penguins to minimise the disturbance to their habitat and to ensure the birds were “safe and protected”, but that it was “also crucial that the public could still see these penguins”.
“It’s such a rare and unique opportunity for the public to connect with nature in the city – we wanted to make sure that wasn’t lost,” she says.
For Watson, the reopening brings together what has become something of a lifelong labour of love. “I’m still here volunteering – I’ll see how things go. Obviously, I still like penguins. They have always been here – penguins have been in Port Phillip Bay for a long time. This new system means the penguin colony will be cherished and protected.”
